The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-10-20
! RUSSIAN NEWSPAPERS.
OILY 600 JOURNALS PUBLISHED IN
THE cZAR'S ENTIRE EMPIRE.

All the Noted Newspapers Conducted by
Independent Writers Have Been Aboi-
ished-oHeiai statistics-why Russia Is
Almost N.wspaperiess--warnin
A complete stagnaton threatens the
Russian press. 1t is not because nova
days there are no able writer's in Russia.
Tho trouble Is that the present minister Of
the interior, Count ID. Tolstoi, has sue
ceeded in abolishing I'LL the noted journals
conducted by talented and independent
writers. The list Of the periodical publ
cations that have been suppressed during
the last six years is fan more Interesting
and valuable than all the papers now liv-
ing. Now there is no originality about
Russian journals, no freshness and none
of that domestic stirring interest which
in the days gone by used to so much at
tract attention in all parts of the great
empire.
The suspended Golos (lhe No;cs) las
left fully $4,000 subscribers witauut any
paper to their taste, for none OF lkum dare
to defend the constitutional form Of the
government AS The Golos did. In the
sixties, when the czar-libolator tried to
free the press from the iron grip Of the
censor, Nicholas Tchernyshcvsky started
The Contemporary Review, II monthly in
which he taught the Russian public for
the first time to conscientiously criticise
the government measures, 1t is inpos-
sible in this country even to imagine
what whirlwind of public opinion he
raised as by magic, But even the iber-
ator could not long stand such freedom Of
a eli Tnh Shaxy o. rn,,t
to Siberia for seven years and kept l %
for fifteen. But the martyrology e.
Russian editors and writer's is too H., 20
be given here.
The number of periodicals issued in
Russia amounts to a little over COO As
the population of the ears empire is
105, 600, 600 it is evident then that it takes
175, 900 Russian subjects to support one
periodical, whereas in the United States
every 1000 souls support some publica-
ton,
RUssIA's 400 PERIODICALS.
Putting aside 200 periodicals published
in other than the Russian language. the
400 Russian periodicals are classified as
follows: Daily, So; weekly, SO; monthly,
81; several times per week, 40; several
times per year, 1873, Nearly one half the
Russian periodicals are published in the
capital of the empire, st. Petersburg, and
ne-third in seven of the largest towns,
leaving for therest Of the great empire less
than 100 periodicals. In the czsr's country
there are many towns Of 10000, 10000,
or even DO, 900 inhabitants which have not
a periodical of any kind. The whole of
Siberia, with 4,000,00 of population, has
only two newspapers and bi-mouthly of a
geographical society.
According to the official statistics fur
nished by the post department last year
in Russia there passed through the mail
about II, 500, coo copies of Russian peri
odicals of all sorts, and 100000 of for
eign periodicals We're received in Russia,
Thus it appears that there is not for each
subject of the car during year even a
single copy of any periodical, Russian or
foreign.
Why is the Russian press so insgnifi-
cant as to its volume' Some say it is be-
cause fully so per cent. of the Russians
are illiterate. But if the educated and
schooled Russians would read newspapers
as freely as Americans do, then in Russia
there would be 5000 periodicals instead of
600. There are other causes that make
the cars country almost newspaperless.
In the first place, there is no political life
at all, and the industrial life there is
| in Its embryonic state. Russians have
not so much news to exchange as the
people in other countries have. In the
| second place, the autocratic government
Systematically and most strenuCusly OPP
poses the growth of the press Cars have
always been aware that writer's, even
| though in the clutches of censors and